Sublime

His Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of U.S. Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan (Stanton 2009),

In May 1941, Arthur Hays Sulzberger had spoken words to affirm that he and the American journalism establishment could not “turn our heads away from those who suffer.” He spoke of a need to confront the horrors of other people’s suffering in order to keep alive “spiritual values” to be once again embraced “when all this nightmare is over.” And yet,

From Venezuela, Humboldt and Bonpland sailed for Cuba, arriving at Havana and the comforts of civilization in November of 1800. Humboldt wandered about Havana’s botanical garden, made more maps (the first accurate maps of Cuba), and observed with sinking heart the institution of slavery (“no doubt the greatest of all evils that afflict humanity”).

The Birth of a Nation became the country’s most popular film. The Klan, which by 1915 had become defunct, was relaunched. Its recruiters used the film to draw in millions of members. Five months later, Wilson virtually reenacted the plot of The Birth of a Nation by sending the marines to the black republic of Haiti to wrest control from the “unstab